Trade Talk Blog: Investing Now and for the Future: Trading Technologies and the Asia/Pacific Region

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Last night, I attended the FOW & Global Investor Asia Capital Markets Awards in Singapore, where Trading Technologies was awarded “Best New Product – Trading and Execution” for TT Desktop. This adds another feather to TT’s cap: the platform was named “Trading System of the Year, Buy-Side” at last year’s event, where we also collected the award for “Asia Prop Traders’ ISV of the Year.”

“The judges were in no doubt about the quality of the product, praising the performance of the platform and the ability for TT to update or add functionality at the click of a button.”

– Will Mitting, Managing Director at the Global Investor Group

It was a fitting end to the day, which I spent with colleagues in the TT stand at the Trading Singapore conference. Our conversations there with customers, partners and others focused on the momentum we’ve gained in the Asia/Pacific region and the pace of enhancements to the TT® platform, which of course includes TT Desktop.

This recognition from FOW & Global Investor reinforces the achievement of an ambitious milestone we set to reach five years ago when we first announced our intent to build a technologically superior trading platform. Among the various enhancements we’ve released for TT since its launch two and a half years ago, TT Desktop stands out as the most performant front-end application we’ve ever released. While TT Desktop is a remarkable technical advancement in its own right, it’s TT ability to deliver a high-performance desktop trading application combined with overall architectural improvements—leveraging the cloud, accessing information from anywhere, real-time failover and no back-end server maintenance or costs—that makes TT Desktop unlike any other new trading product on the market.

Built to support complex desktop setups, TT Desktop allows traders to create large workspaces with multiple windows arranged on up to 16 monitors. Its multi-processor design allows TT Desktop to consume prices at a faster rate and provide an optimal user experience with no degradation in performance. It accesses the same back end as the browser-based and mobile versions of TT, which means that regardless of which interface you chose—desktop, browser or mobile—you can use the same login to see all of your orders, fills and positions.

While specifically recognizing TT Desktop, this award also shines a light on our ongoing commitment and investment within the Asia/Pacific region. With offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo, it goes without saying that Trading Technologies has always valued our growing Asia/Pacific customer base.

Mark Pottle, who has spent more than 15 years as a Sales Manager in our London office, will add invaluable experience as the Regional Executive Sales Director, Singapore.

We also welcome back former Managing Director of Australia Michael Peters from Macquarie Group, where he most recently served as Vice President of Client Solutions. Michael rejoins us as Regional Executive Sales Director, Australia.

Together in partnership, Mark and Michael will lead our expansion efforts and drive new business growth in the Asia/Pacific region.

That said, we remain extremely focused on ensuring our existing customers continue to receive the highest level of service and support they have come to expect from TT. By maintaining close relationships with our clients and leveraging those relationships for first-hand feedback, we’ve created a trading execution platform that traders, risk managers and administrators tell us exceeds expectations. In my seven years with Trading Technologies, most recently as Director of Customer Success, I’ve witnessed the positive impact that TT has had on our Asia/Pacific users. The platform’s architecture supports constant innovation and customization while providing expansive functionality, low-latency trade execution and accessibility via the browser, TT Mobile or TT Desktop. With the radical changes in the financial markets over the last couple of years, it’s important that our Asia/Pacific traders can rely on a platform that can evolve with the market—and TT has proven its agility time and time again.

Investing in Infrastructure: HKEX Colocation Complete, with More to Come

But our expansion doesn’t stop there, as we will continue to add market access points in the region. For example, in 2018, clients will be able to access the Korea Exchange (KRX) and the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) via the TT platform.

By adding new markets and colocating with exchanges, we’re not only providing users with new trade opportunities, but also giving traders the ability to access real-time market data and execute orders with ultra-low latency. Customers can further streamline trade execution by running TT components, including Autospreader®, ADL® and TT Algo SDK, on a private server for optimal performance with TT Reserved. And spread traders can utilize TT Prime, a custom-built Autospreader application, to combine prices, order routing and spread logic into a single process for the fastest quoting and hedge speeds.

Finally, it must be said that whilst we have made these significant investments in personnel, product and market connectivity, the continued growth we see in the region is a testament to our customers and their confidence in the TT platform. In Asia/Pacific, firms such as ABN AMRO Clearing, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, G. H. Financials, Macquarie Bank and UOB Bullion & Futures appreciate that the TT platform is far more accessible, introduces high-grade administration tools and, of course, delivers low-latency trade execution through server-side functionality.

All of us at TT appreciate the enthusiasm shown by our Asia/Pacific clients. We look forward to working with both current and prospective customers to help them best leverage TT’s innovative technology, expanding infrastructure and support resources.